A Xorn can use three slam and one bite attacks per round and fight up to three opponents at the same time.

It can use camouflage to blend into stone backgrounds, gaining +5 to hide attempts. In combat, it is more likely to meld into any stone surface, then move and attack from somewhere else 1d3 rounds later, thereby gaining surprise (top of initiative order).

While passing through stone, it can be damaged by a Shatter spell as if it was an inanimate object, and a Transmute Earth spell with a spellcheck result of 20+ on the stone area it passes through will destroy it; a successful lower result will expel it from the stone and turn its body into mud, which prevents it from merging with stone and lowers its AC to 12 for 1d6 rounds while it reforms its structure to stone.

Xorns are immune against any kind of fire and cold and get a Fort save against electrical attacks, negating all damage if successful and taking half damage if failing. They always take only half damage from edged weapons.

Montag, 7. März 2016

+Tim Shorts was so nice to send me a print version of his mini-adventure The Flayed King last year, and I recently ran it at a con using Dungeon Crawl Classics. Here are my monster stat conversions, used against a party of five level 1 characters.

Ring of Kearar

Since the original Ring of Raraek that Goreth was wearing was more suited for campaign play, I changed it to something easier to hand out at a convention game:

The Ring of Kearar is sentient, but not aligned. It shimmers with a cold blue light. The wearer can make any melee weapon appear in their hand. It will form in one round; changing it to another weapon is also possible in one round. It appears as if made out of blue light. It gives no bonus to attack or damage, but the damage counts as magical.

They are translucent, with their faces, bodies and limbs strangely twisted and bent. They are usually bound to the place where they died.

Un-dead traits: immune to sleep, charm, and paralysis spells, as well as other mental effects and cold damage.

Life drain: all damage done gets added to their hit points (characters can regain lost hp normally).

Create spawn: any living humanoid killed by their life drain rises as a twisted ghost after the next sunset or after 1d4 rounds after “bleeding out” if it is currently night. “Recovering the body” is only possible before sunset and only if the respective ghost has been destroyed.

They are translucent, with their faces, bodies and limbs strangely tumid and bloated. They are usually bound to the place where they died.

Life drain: all damage done (both hp and STA loss) gets added to their hit points (characters can regain lost points normally).

Create spawn and un-dead traits: as above.

Adjusting for character level:

Both of these variants should be a good challenge for a party of 1st level adventurers if the number appearing is about half the number of characters. It will be a very difficult encounter if they don’t have magical or silver weapons (or clerics), so you might drop some hints or rumors so the players have a chance to prepare if they’re clever.

Silver weapons:

These are not readily available, but if there in a reasonably big city or market, a character may find a weapon suitable for them if they succeed on a luck check. The price should be about 30 times as much as the normal cost of the weapon.

A blacksmith might be willing to coat any weapon with silver for 20 times the normal price of the weapon; this is but temporary: after using such a weapon in a fight against a corporeal enemy, a luck check decides if the silver coating is still functional or wore out. Fighting incorporeal enemies does not tarnish the silver coating!

Magic weapons: These are never for sale. (Well, maybe if they are cursed.)

Freitag, 31. Oktober 2014

An Absorber Imp is a very small demon, typically about one foot tall, with a pitch black hide, a set of leathery wings, often strangely colored eyes and a head like a miniature dragon. They possess child-like intelligence but cannot speak. Their reflexes are quick, they can sense magic and they are able to fly for short periods of time.

Absorber Imps are often used by more powerful demons as retainers, and fulfill simple tasks and services for them. Still, it is possible to encounter an Absorber Imp on its own, if it was lost, trapped, abandoned, or on a mission for or even fleeing from its master. It is very rare to face two or more Absorber Imps in the same place. They don't work well with each other.

Like a lot of imps, they are not truly evil but mischievous in nature and love to play pranks or otherwise annoy their chosen victims. These pranks are never intended to be life-threatening but can sometimes be dangerous. The favorite victims of Absorber Imps are those gifted with magic powers, because they feed on magical energies.

It is not known whether their name originally stemmed from their skin's property of absorbing all light or from their more fantastic ability to absorb pure magic power. These imps can absorb any magical spell or effect in their vicinity, regardless of the intended target, area of effect or power. The original magic effect is cancelled completely and is instead stored inside the imp. The imp can store the magic of up to three spells or other magic effects at the same time for as long as it wishes, potentially forever, but it can also unleash its powers whenever it wants to. Absorber Imps can also decide to devour a magic power that they previously stored. This destroys the magic completely.

When the Absorber Imp releases stored magic, it can choose all variable aspects of its effects, like targets, as if it were the original caster of the spell, or the original user of a magic scroll or wand. If the imp has already currently stored three magical powers, it can choose to absorb a new magic effect and release one of its stored ones as one action.

Absorber Imps are immune to magic weapons and can absorb magical effects of magic weapons hitting them, including all damage, like they can absorb other magic. They can release the stored effects from magic weapons by hitting the intended target with their otherwise not overly dangerous claws.

Due to their abilities to store spells and sense magic, Absorber Imps are rare but highly priced familiars for witches, warlocks and dark mages. Although not easy, they can be befriended, especially if they are well fed with magical energy. An Absorber Imp familiar is a double-edged sword, though, because no matter how well trained, they will never stop playing pranks.

Absorber Imps can be bound into shards of obsidian, if one knows the required ritual. They will stay bound until the word of release is spoken or the obsidian is shattered. Furthermore, magic effects or damage originating from magical obsidian objects or obsidian weapons cannot be absorbed and fully affects the imps. Any damage received from obsidian weapons is a perilous and grave incident for an Absorber Imp and one of the only sure ways to permanently destroy them instead of just sending them back to their shadow realm. For these reasons, most of them are afraid or even repelled by obsidian objects of any kind.

The Absorber Imp's eyes change with the kind of magic powers it has currently stored. An absorbed fireball might turn its eyes into a fiery inferno, a friendship enchantment can make them seem trustworthy and a portal spell might transform their eyes into actual windows into time and space. Often, but not necessarily always, the eyes adjust to the most powerful magic that is currently stored. Pitch black eyes can be a tell for an Absorber Imp with no stored magic whatsoever, or an alarming signal for devastating black magic.

Optionally, a Judge may allow a player character with the Find Familiar spell to bond with an Absorber Imp if the rolled familiar type is demonic or if an the imp is encountered by a neutral or chaotic spellcaster without a familiar (but the spell must be known). The Absorber Imp will have the abilities and stats described above instead of the usual demonic familiar traits. As a familiar, it can freely absorb spells from its wizard, but can only absorb spells from other casters up to it’s wizard’s caster level per hour (e.g. the familiar of a 5th level wizard could absorb one 3rd level and one 2nd level spell in the same hour). In the case of absorbed magical creature abilities, substitute the creature’s hit dice for spell level. The imp’s immunity to magic and magic weapons remains intact. Absorber Imps’ familiar personality trait is always prankful.

Donnerstag, 10. Juli 2014

In return for illustrating my brain sloth, I wrote up one of +Matthew Adams' wonderful creature designs and gave it some DCC stats, too.

Artwork by Matthew Adams

You might not believe it, but the mire man was once an elf. He still is, in a sense. A failed experiment of the elfin slime lords, a twisted hybrid of an elf and a slime. He has been an outcast for decades, dumped into the swampland surrounding the elfin slime lords' citadel, haunting the swamps and scaring away the few who dare to venture there. The mire man hates everything that has bones. His territory is marked by a countless number of strange sculptures made from the broken bones of creatures that crossed his path, from frogs to unwary travelers. He tolerates nothing but invertebrates. Worms and leeches are his only friends.

The mire man is immune to poison, charm, sleep, paralysis, stun, and polymorph. He ignores extra damage and effects from critical hits that normally damage limbs or bones. Piercing or slashing weapons only do half damage because his slime body just closes the cuts again. His limbs are extremely flexible and bendy, and can be stretched to a length of 10' each, although he usually keeps them from three to five foot long.

As a free action every three rounds, the mire man can try to call upon d20-8 leeches that automatically bite on to his foes that are standing in the mire. These start to drain blood at a rate of 1hp per round and leech. Characters can get rid of leeches by using an action to remove as many leeches from themselves as the result of an Agility check.

Montag, 7. Juli 2014

Brain sloths cling to cave or dungeon ceilings, drop down on hapless adventurers, pierce their skulls and attach to their brains with tentacle-thingies. Then they guide the bodies into their breeding chamber where they are filled with eggs by the enormous brain sloth queen.

The brain sloth eggs can be removed with a cleric's lay on hands; they are a 3 dice condition.

Alternatively any character can make a DC 10 medical skill check (remember that only characters with appropriate occupations may use a d20, all untrained characters use a d10). A success means the eggs are removed and the patient takes 1d4 damage (only 1 damage on a natural 20). A failure means the eggs are removed, but the patient suffers 1d10 damage (only 1d6 damage if eggs are in a limb). A fumble results in 1d10 damage (1d6 in limb) and all but one egg removed.

After 12 hours inside of a body, the eggs will attach growing tentacles to the nervous system of their host and cause paralyzation. The gestation period is 2d4+8 days, after which the baby brain sloths burst out of the host's body.